Maruti violence: How workers went from celebration to carnage in Manesar

"They were under pressure. Because the union members don't know what are the compulsions on a negotiating table. You have to be reasonable. You know that the HR managers are not authorised to take decisions on behalf of the management. You need to be tactful and patient.

May be the leaders failed to temper the expectations of the workers," said an official of the Haryana labour department familiar with the situation at Maruti.

When the union registration came through in March this year, the workers at Manesar celebrated. They now had a recognised union that would representthem in the upcoming wage negotiations

WAGE NEGOTIATIONS

The previous wage settlement happened in 2009 and its terms are effective up to 31 March 2012. When the settlement happened in 2009, Maruti had no union in Manesar and the Gurgaon union was an unelected, nominated union widely seen to be a "management-pocket union" in workers' parlance. In Gurgaon, subsequent to the labour strike in 2000, nearly 1,300 workers accepted voluntary retirement. Once the unionised workers were out of the company, it saw little union activity. Even the union office in Gurgaon remained shut for 10 years until it was reopened last year, subsequent to the elections in July 2011. According to workers in Gurgaon, the 2009 wage settlement, which applied also to Manesar, was not exactly a negotiated settlement, as the then union had little real clout.

Hopes were high around the settlement negotiations this time. In Manesar, there was a union movement that had shown its teeth, there was a recognised union that could negotiate on the workers' behalf, and for the first time since the Manesar plant started operations in 2007, the workers could now negotiate with the management on equal terms. By some accounts, the worker's unionisation had exacerbated tensions on the shop floor. Their relationship with their immediate supervisors, who, in the workers' eyes, belong in the management, but are not vastly different from them in their socio-economic profile, had turned frostier. While the workersupervisor friction is neither new nor unique to Maruti shopfloor, the union was a new variable in the equation. Workers flaunted their union strength, and supervisors used to counter them saying the union won't be able to save them from consequences of indiscipline.

Union general secretary Ram Meher was suspended for indiscipline in May. It was revoked three days later after he apologised. The Manesar union's charter of demands ahead of the wage settlement negotiations was ambitious (See box: We Demand...), perhaps in line with a long-standing negotiation tactic of starting high. But the labour department official says their top demands this time related to contract workers.

They wanted higher wages and regularisation of casual labour. Even though contract workers are not part of the union, they have strong ties of clan, caste and region with the permanent workers. A large number of them are related, or have been employed through references from permanent workers to the labour contractors. But once on the shopfloor, they work alongside for very different terms and remuneration.

The details of how the negotiations were progressing are unknown as workers are mostly on the run following the violence. Maruti chairman RC Bhargava said last week that wage negotiations were proceeding smoothly and all outstanding issues during the strike last year had been resolved.

The labour department official said that on the fateful day, the management had agreed to revoke the suspension of Jiya Lal. They told the union leaders that they can work things out once the workers go home. Union leaders were adamant that the suspension should be revoked right then.

But there was a minor technicality— Jiya Lal had refused to accept the suspension letter. So how could we revoke the suspension when the letter is still with us, the executives argued. As the subsequent events attest, logic was a casualty that evening.